Building Science Capital

Science

The University of Bath’s Dr Andrew Ross talks to The Little Things about how to have fun with science. No, really…

You may not have heard of Science Capital – most people haven’t, but it is all the rage across universities at the moment. Science Capital comes from some work done most recently at Kings College London. It basically says that children who engage with science at a young age are more likely to choose science or engineering subjects and careers in the future. The research suggests that children have pretty much made up their mind about whether they will aspire to a science or engineering career by the end of primary school, which is pretty scary.

How do you build your child’s science capital and their knowledge of science and engineering? Don’t worry if you’re not a scientist, these tips are great for everyone and it will give you some quiet time while your child is engaged in other activities.

A DAY OUT TO A SCIENCE CENTRE

If you live near a science centre (there are big ones in Bristol and Winchester), then these are great places to have your child entertained for hours playing and engaging with all the interactive science and engineering on offer. Rather than them run aimlessly around, why not set them a few things they have to do while they are there? They could draw a picture of their favourite piece of science or write 5 words about each of the things they engage with. Maybe you could even set some questions they have to answer like: What is the display about? What is the key science/engineering the activity is trying to show? Does it remind them of anything they have done at school?

TV SHOWS

We all need some down time and many of us use TV time as a bit of me time. Rather than standard children’s programmes, why not find some science shows on the internet? There are things for every age group; things about space or dinosaurs are usually a winner. While they’re watching the programme, they could write a few of the new words they learn or some things they find interesting. Sometimes your child will watch a programme then come to you with a really complicated question – don’t worry – rather than having to give them the answer why not use it as a learning opportunity and work with them to find out the answer on the internet. Eventually, your child will learn how to do their own research.

GET THEM TO DO A RESEARCH PROJECT

This can last for weeks. You can get your child to ‘ask’ a question that they would like to know the answer to. Smaller questions are much better than large ones – it’s much better to ask, “what type of items float?” than to ask, “Why is the sky blue?” There are lots of suggestions of questions online which you can use to guide your child to the right question online (mainly American sites that support students to do science fairs).

A question that can be measured is best and will allow you to expand their exploration as the hours/days/weeks progress. To ensure your child keeps engaged it’s best if they are producing something they can show you. They can write about everything they have done and design a poster at the end that they can take to a school show and tell session.

This is not only engaging them with science and engineering but it also supports your child’s inquisition and questioning skills, which will help them in all areas of school and life.

Any engagement your child does with science and engineering is very positive and will ensure they progress into secondary school still enjoying the thoughts of a scientific career. Things can change though when secondary school begins, science isn’t always fun practicals using Bunsen burners (despite what the open evening might show you) sometimes they will have to learn facts and figures and some children struggle with this and decide that science and engineering is not for them. Some students though stay engaged and decide to go onto scientific and engineering careers in the future.

ABOUT DR ANDREW ROSS

Andrew is the Science Outreach Manager at the University of Bath and runs programmes and activities to support student of all ages – primary through to sixth form – particularly from underrepresented backgrounds to progress to university. Andrew has a PhD in Chemistry from the University of Sheffield and in 2010 he set the Guinness World Record for the fastest time to make 1 litre of ice cream – in just 10.34 seconds!

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